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As sorry as I was to hear this month that CCP has cancelled its World of Darkness MMO, when a developer says that a game just isn’t working out, I tend to believe them. Testers have started to leak little bits of World of Darkness, severalsets of screenshots and a supposed playtest manual, and, well, it does look ropey.

The playtest manual is from March so, assuming it’s real, the decision to cancel really was recent. It was clearly still early days for the game, incomplete and bugged, but many of its ideas seem settled.

The manual explains a fair number of these. It teaches about ‘Paths of Enlightenment’ which seem to be analogous to traditional MMORPG classes and roles (rather than morality codes, as in the tabletop RPG), and how to gain ‘Essences’ which boost these by tracking and feeding from certain types of mortal. We learn about turning NPCs into ghouls to have them complete missions, and jockeying for control of the hunting grounds which let players benefit from others’ missions. It tells us about how XP gain would’ve been a bit EVE-y, offering a certain amount per day if players have enough blood to buy them, and saving any missed points from past days in case they have a windfall of vitae.

And skill trees, and guild-like Broods, and so on, and so on. Do give it a good read if you’re curious about how it would have been. Ultimately, what’s shown and explained doesn’t look very World of Darkness-y. An instruction manual and a smattering of screenshots will never paint a full picture, but it doesn’t seem especially mysterious or sexy or exciting, just a bit… so-so. A bit too MMORPG-y. A bit too “Press E to Seduce.”

“We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short,” CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson said in announcing the cancellation. Seems true. A shame.

(In the interest of attribution, some of these screens come via Reddit but I lose the trail to the source once it goes into Russian fan forums.)

It’s worth pointing out that Mitsoda is long gone from Obsidian. That said, I deeply want Obsidian to make a dark urban fantasy game. Preferably their own setting, that way it can’t be taken away by publisher shenanigans.

“It teaches about ‘Paths of Enlightenment’ which seem to be analogous to traditional MMORPG classes and roles (rather than morality codes, as in the tabletop RPG)”

Can’t help but think that this is where they began throwing money down a pit. Taking care of the bit in parentheses might be substantially trickier, but not only would it have carved them a mechanical niche for the virtual bods, it’d have bee more impactful in getting any tabletop converts to stick around.

That said, any post-mortem of this is going to be based on ignorant assumption and is consequently pointless.

Ah. That would be the famous “poetic” user interface. Not sure what poetry I’m reminded of exactly, but it’s definitely some poetry. Yep. Buttons. Poetic.

The round interface elements represent the cycle of existence, the brutality of nature and the inevitability of suffering. The use of a simple circle over an ouroboros shows that, in the context of natural evil, the participants are faceless and undefined. It is not a snake that bites its tale, but a representation of pure violence.

I respect CCP and a few years ago quit EVE after a number of years high end play.

I always thought the whitewolf merger was an odd one but hoped that CCPs ambition would make something special, I’m sorry to see it end really. I was originally introduced to world of darkness but vampire the maskerade and I loved it. I wanted to play the pen and paper but never got around to it.

Reading the CCP document attached in the article it really seems they didn’t know how to make the game fun, and it appears to be a normal MMO without anything special from WOD. It really appears to be missing any fun factor. Could have been great, and sadly looks like it was massively mishandled.

Really hope CCP get some of their investment back licensing the IP out to a competent Dev (obsidian).

Absolutely not in favor of giving this to Obsidian. I think they do a fine job with writing and creating interesting plots, but cannot seem to get around to properly finishing what they started code-wise. Give it to CD Projekt RED, maybe with the first draft of the script handled by Avellone & Co.

As long as we can make a wish:
I’d rather have Troika reassembled and have them make a Bloodlines 2. This time with a big budget and supported by Rockstar to create a vampire game in the open worlds of Liberty City and Los Santos.
I’d sell my soul for that if I had one.

This writer is not a fan of World of Darkness so I could care less when he says “A bit too MMORPG-y” He doesn’t realize the World of Darkness Community UTTER FRUSTRATION with waiting on this game.

After looking at these Screenshots and the trailer YET AGAIN… and comparing it to my FOURTH replay of Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines that this game NEEDS TO BE RELEASED!!!

Whether Single Player or MMORPG”

1. The Artwork is MAGNIFICENT That alone (along with the underlying code) could be the basis of a new Vampire the Masquerade
2. The jumping from and to buildings looks AMAZING and wow a great experience this would be in the World of Darkness
3. Finally, The YEARS devoted and poured into this project call for its release to the world

“Using the discipline DOMINATE he says..” Sign this petition and BRING IT TO LIFE!!link to change.org